Carver culinary students win restaurant management competition

The students, winners in 2012 and 2011, earned first place in the restaurant management division and second in the culinary arts division of the ProStart Massachusetts Student Invitational Wednesday at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge. The management team will head to the national competition in Baltimore April 19-21.

By Jody Feinberg

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Jody Feinberg

Posted Mar. 13, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 13, 2013 at 1:12 PM

By Jody Feinberg

Posted Mar. 13, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Mar 13, 2013 at 1:12 PM

» Social News

Culinary students at Carver High won first and second place awards at a state competition last week, defending their championship status.

The students, winners in 2012 and 2011, earned first place in the restaurant management division and second in the culinary arts division of the ProStart Massachusetts Student Invitational Wednesday at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Cambridge. The management team will head to the national competition in Baltimore April 19-21.

“I’m happy,” said culinary arts director Dan Portelance, who started the program at Carver High six years ago. “The kids worked really hard and mastered something. It’s something to be really proud of to watch them.”

Unlike a vocational school where students spend half the year in culinary arts, the students at Carver High take a year-long, one-hour a day culinary arts class and then practice after school two or three afternoons a week. The competition included ten schools that use the ProStart School-to-Career Program curriculum, ranging from Amherst Regional High School to North Shore Technical High School.

For its winning business proposal, the five-member restaurant team proposed a “responsible” restaurant named “Genesis,” and explained its features – green design, locally grown foods, refurbished furnishing – in a 12,000 word proposal, oral presentation and visual display.

“They looked at all the different features of a responsible restaurant, from the building, furnishings, menu and employee training,” Portelance said.

For the culinary arts competition, four students had one hour to create a three course meal whose ingredients cost no more than $25. They prepared pan seared Arcadian red fish over lobster hash, sweet and white fingerling potatoes and green beans and a steamed molasses cake served with caramelized apples and pears and maple bavarian cream.

“On cooking shows like “Iron Chef,” they do a lot of things we could never get away with, like slamming food around,” said Portelance, a former chef at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. “As their teacher and coach, I sit there and am amazed at how calm they are.”

Although the culinary team did not win a spot at nationals, its members won scholarships to a variety of higher education programs in culinary arts. And the team, which went to nationals last year, has offered to give tips about the national competition to students from Whittier Regional Technical High School in Haverill as they prepare for their turn at nationals. “When we competed last week, we represented just Carver, but now we’re representing the state,” Portelance said.